With the Russian invasion of Ukraine making headlines around the world, we here at Queerty want to highlight one aspect of the attack not getting enough traction elsewhere in the media: the effect of the Russian incursion on the LGBTQ community of Ukraine.
Related: That time Ukraine won Eurovision with a song decrying cultural genocide by a murderous dictator
As many readers of this site will note, the Putin regime instituted oppressive policies against queer people in Russia several years ago. LGBTQ people can lose their jobs, homes, or even disappear into the night as victims of torture, government raids, or mob violence.
Related: Ukrainian LGBTQ activists captured a group of Russian soldiers hiding in a basement
For more insight into this growing humanitarian crisis, we’ve compiled a list of four films that explore the history, motives, and consequences of anti-LGBTQ bigotry in Russia, and help put the threat to the community in real-world terms.
Welcome to Chechnya
David France directed this documentary detailing the network of underground safe houses organized to help LGBTQ people escape the Russian state of Chechnya known as the “Rainbow Railroad”. France and his subjects all risked their lives to make the film, and it shows. Welcome to Chechnya plays like a taut spy thriller with white-knuckle suspense.
Streams on HBO Max.
Operation Hyacinth
This Netflix film doesn’t deal with the current situation in Eastern Europe, though it does go into the long history of Russian oppression of queer people. Set in the 1980s, Operation Hyacinth deals with Soviet-era mandates to identify, intimidate and purge LGBTQ people–specifically gay men–from Polish society. While investigating a string of rentboy murders, one detective begins to make a few realizations about his own sexuality.
Streams on Netflix.
A Worm in the Heart
This true indie documentary doesn’t get enough credit for its insight into Russia’s queer population, or the risk its filmmakers took in making it. Director Paul Rice filmed a three-week trip across Russia with his boyfriend Liam investigating the queer scene there, interviewing Russians about their experiences with their friends, family, and the government in coming out. Rice also draws a line between Putin’s attacks on LGBTQ Russians and the actions of a certain American President who seems to have inspired him.
Continues to play film festivals worldwide.
And Then We Danced
This Sundance selection deals less with government oppression than with the engrained oppressive attitudes in Russia and its neighbor states. The movie follows Merab, a traditional Georgian dancer who falls hard for a fellow dancer named Irakli. Upon release, the film met with mass protests across the country. It also helped start a national dialogue about the place of LGBTQ people, and helped bring the community in Georgia together.
Streams on Amazon, VUDU & YouTube.
Related: Here’s where you can donate to help LGBTQ people in Ukraine
Joshooeerr
In this instance Queerty’s recommendations are worth endorsing. And Then We Danced is a masterpiece, well worth your time. Operation Hyacinth is a superior thriller (a rare thing among LGBT themed films). And Welcome to Chechnya is an important documentary, even if I personally thought it was somewhat cheapened by the technical coup de theatre that has been used as a selling point.
Leash
I’ve only seen “Welcome to Chechnya” and would like to recommend it. It’s devastating to watch, but everyone should to see what Putin and his bunch of thugs are capable of.
johncp56
I will, but over a few years I saw that creeps hate, homophobic rant and the line there are no homosexuals/those people in his country, sadly like a horror movie but truly real